Preparing for the 2026 CCL Summer Conference & Lobby Day

 

Registering for the Conference

Register for the conference and lobby day here by July 9th. Check out the conference webpage for the agenda, hotel reservation information, and FAQs. If you have any questions about the conference, email conference.inbox@citizensclimate.org.


The minimum age to participate in CCL events, activities, and lobby meetings is 13 years old. We welcome children ages 13-17 to attend the Summer Conference & Lobby Day as long as they are accompanied by their parent, legal guardian, or a grandparent who is also registered for the event. This ensures minors have the proper support and supervision while engaging with our programs through the duration of the event. See our full Youth Policy here.

Instructions for registering with a minor: Minors cannot register themselves. The parent/legal guardian/grandparent must register themself as well as their child for the conference by selecting two tickets (i.e a "Conference & Lobby Day" ticket and a "Student" ticket). In the registration form, each ticket will require the individual attendee’s information. The parent/legal guardian/grandparent information should be entered as one attendee, and the child’s information should be entered as the other attendee. The minor will be paired with their parent/legal guardian/grandparent on lobby day, both people will receive their own lobby day schedules that will match.

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Most Important Training and Resources

The below training is recommended to get you ready for lobby day and familiar with the Asks we will be making to Congress. Links will be added after each training to watch the recordings. Note: political dynamics are unpredictable and can lead to changes in our Asks and training between now and lobby day.

• Lobby Training #1: Primary & Secondary Asks - Thursday, July 16 8 p.m. ET
• Lobby Training #2: Lobby Plan Q&A - Tuesday, July 21 1 p.m. ET
• Conference & Lobby Day Q&A - Thursday, June 18 8 p.m. ET (Recording)

If you’re new to CCL or you have never taken CCL’s Climate Advocate Workshop, we strongly encourage you to attend this workshop live during the conference on Monday, July 27th. Or if you prefer to complete the online version ahead of time, sign up and attend the live virtual session on July 2nd, 8 p.m. ET or watch a recording. This workshop is required to lobby with CCL, so plan to attend the virtual or in-person version (or both!).

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Additional Training Opportunities

See our our Lobby Meeting Toolkit for additional training based on your role and experience level.  If you are getting ready to lobby for the first time, you may find this training helpful:

• Lobbying with Impact: How to Prepare and Show Up Strong for Your Congressional Meetings Thursday, June 11

The specific asks will be available closer to lobby day, but we know that the general topics of discussion will be Permitting Reform and the Fix Our Forests Act.  The following trainings and resource pages will help you better understand these topics if you are new to them.

• Messaging for Impact: Permitting Reform Wrap-Up
• Permitting Reform Training Series - includes separate sessions digging into the details on various aspects of permitting reform
• Fix Our Forests Toolkit

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Lobby Meeting Process & Appointment Setting

Lobby Meeting Appointment Setting
Lobby meeting appointments with Congressional offices will be made by designated CCL Congressional Liaisons or Appointment Setters. If you are not a liaison, please do not try to set an appointment (you can learn about becoming a liaison here). If you’re not sure if there is a liaison or you need help, contact your State Coordinator.

Lobby Team & Schedule Creation
Lobby teams and schedules are coordinated in conjunction with CCL Staff and State Coordinators and a software program that prioritizes constituents and existing liaisons to be placed in their district meeting if possible. We cross reference the availability volunteer lobbyists provide during registration, and place them into appointments based on their availability, congressional district, any special relationships they have and the need for volunteers to fill meetings where we do not have any or enough constituents to fill the meeting. We try to have no more than 6 people per meeting, depending on the number of people we have participating in Lobby Day. We estimate each volunteer lobbyist to have 2-4 meetings. We will do our best to put constituents in their congressperson’s meeting though sometimes there are more constituents than space in an office. 

We kindly ask volunteer lobbyists to love the schedule received. The process of coordinating the schedule is complex and changes have domino effects. Often there are more constituents than space available in Capitol Hill offices. Sometimes Congressional staffers have requested a limit on the number of people attending the meeting. If for any reason one cannot attend a meeting we ask they notify the meeting leader, which can be found on one’s personal lobby schedule.

Lobby meetings will be taking place on Tuesday, July 28, 2026, starting anywhere from 8:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. You will be asked about your availability for lobby day during registration. Since we don't know in advance how many lobby meetings are later in the day, we'd like to have as many lobbyists as possible stay until the end of the day and come to the post lobby day reception. If you need to end your lobby day earlier than 5:30 p.m., when you register please indicate the time you are available until (you can potentially be scheduled for a meeting to start 1 hour prior to the time indicated. For example, if you indicate in your registration you are available until 3 p.m., you could be scheduled for a meeting that starts at 2 p.m.).

Registered attendees (registration closes July 9, 2026 11:59 p.m. ET sharp, no exceptions) will be notified by July 23rd of your lobby team members and schedule. 

For questions about lobby day, scheduling, or the appointment setting process please email liaison.coordinator@citizensclimate.org.

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Lobby Meeting Planning

Lobby meeting preparation matters whether it’s your first time lobbying or your tenth! While part of the conference programming will include lobby day training, we strongly recommend attending (live or watching the recording) the training sessions listed above before you arrive in D.C. so you start to get familiar with the concepts of the policies we’ll be lobbying on. 

Given our busy conference agenda, it is challenging to fit everything in.  We've created the suggestion below to help you in determining a time to meet with your lobby teams if that is helpful to you. There will be no formal programming during the evening of the conference on July 27th, we suggest you meet with your lobby teams then.
 

Lobby Meeting Start Time	Suggested Planning Start Time (arrange with your team lead)
10-10:59 AM meetings	Monday lunch break (12:00-1:30 PM)
11-11:59 AM meetings	Monday prior to opening session (7:45 - 8:45 AM)
1-1:59 PM meetings	Monday evening break 2nd hour (6:30 - 7:30 PM)
2-2:59 PM meetings	Monday evening break 3rd hour (7:30 - 8:30 PM)
3-3:59 PM meetings	Monday evening break 1st hour (5:30 - 6:30 PM)
4-4:59 PM meetings	Sunday before social time (5:45 - 6:45 PM)
TBD, 9 AM, 12 PM and all others	Sunday after social time (8:30 PM) and Monday late evening (8:30 PM)

Each lobby team will have a person designated as the lead who will coordinate the planning for the lobby meeting. You will be notified in advance if you are designated as a lobby team lead. If you’ve not led a lobby team before, you can check out the Leading a Lobby Team Training. 

Lobby Team Leaders: Individuals selected as Lobby Team Leaders will be alerted of such by July 20th. We ask Team Leaders to contact their team members as soon as you receive your schedule on July 23rd (via email and/or text) to arrange a time to prepare for the meeting virtually, or schedule something in-person at the conference. All contact information for your team will be on your schedule.

Team Members (non Team Leaders): Expect to hear from your Team Leader to arrange time virtually or in-person at the conference to plan your meeting. If you don't hear from your Team Leader, you can also contact them. All contact information for your team will be on your schedule which will be emailed to you by July 23rd.

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More Information & Contact

Check out the FAQs on the Conference Website for more information.

If you have questions about lobby days, please email liaison.coordinator@citizensclimate.org

If you have questions about the conference, please email conference.inbox@citizensclimate.org.